Do you ever go shopping with a family member to the grocery market? If you do, then I’m sure that you would have seen plastic bags at the cashier. The big question is, are plastic bags good or bad for the environment? Well, you could look at it as 50/50. They are good if you can recycle them. They are also waterproof and take up less than 1% of garbage landfills. Plus, they are very useful and only cost 5 cents a bag. But do we really need plastic bags? Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels, and take about 500 years to decompose. And so, coming from the other corner of the ring is ………….. REUSEABLE BAGS!!!!!!!!!! They are way better for the environment. You can reuse them over and over again. Also, reusable bags are easy to carry and are cheap. A couple of things to consider …
If grocery stores used to give out plastic bags for free, but now they charge 5 cents…uh where’s that 5 cents going? We think it should go to an environment fund to come up with more packaging ideas. Five cents multiplied by the 10 billion bags that Zero footprint says we use per year in Canada is a lot of bags.
Does 5 cents really discourage anyone from using plastic bags? In Ireland they ended up charging about 33 cents per bag and THAT made a difference. So what do you think? Can we do the same?
Do you ever go shopping with a family member to the grocery market? If you do, then I’m sure that you would have seen plastic bags at the cashier. The big question is, are plastic bags good or bad for the environment? Well, you could look at it as 50/50. They are good if you can recycle them. They are also waterproof and take up less than 1% of garbage landfills. Plus, they are very useful and only cost 5 cents a bag. But do we really need plastic bags? Plastic bags are made from fossil fuels, and take about 500 years to decompose. And so, coming from the other corner of the ring is …………..
REUSEABLE BAGS!!!!!!!!!! They are way better for the environment. You can reuse them over and over again. Also, reusable bags are easy to carry and are cheap.
A couple of things to consider …
- If grocery stores used to give out plastic bags for free, but now they charge 5 cents…uh where’s that 5 cents going? We think it should go to an environment fund to come up with more packaging ideas. Five cents multiplied by the 10 billion bags that Zero footprint says we use per year in Canada is a lot of bags.
- Does 5 cents really discourage anyone from using plastic bags? In Ireland they ended up charging about 33 cents per bag and THAT made a difference. So what do you think? Can we do the same?
So now, ladies and gentlemen, you know how to lead a plastic-bag free life!By: Deogan
P.S. Check out this link to see what Ireland’s environment minister did to make sure that plastic bags use would decrease dramatically
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/europe/31iht-bags.4.9650382.html?pagewanted=all